The Indigenous Winter Pantry: Recipes for Today’s Kitchen
This article first appeared in Yes! magazine in February 2022. For more on topics like this, please see my book, American Apartheid: The Native American Struggle... Photos courtesy Zuni Youth Enrichment Project, Joseph Zummo, and Cheyenne River Youth Project. “The goal is to fill our bellies and our souls. The Zuni word for this is yu’yashkwi, to sustain life and be nourished as a people.” T he main ingredients in the foods Indigenous people put up for winter are caring, sharing, and a big dollop of joy. Communities that work together to preserve the bounty of prairie, desert, forest, and garden thrive during challenging times. Sharing recipes with us here (see below) are the Pueblo of Zuni and the Ramah Chapter of the Navajo Nation in New Mexico; the Puyallup Tribe in Washington State; and the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe in South Dakota. “Food is at the center of our culture, of our gatherings,” says Kenzi Bowekaty, food sovereignty leader of the Zuni Youth Enrichment Projec